2014, World of Researches Publication 2015, World of Researches Publication

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1 2014, World of Researches Publication 2015, World of Researches Publication Ac. Ac. J. J. Psy. Psy. Stud. Stud. Vol. Vol. 4, 3, Issue Issue 2, 1, 17-21, 80-86, ISSN ISSN (Print) Academic Journal of Academic Psychological Journal of Psychological Studies Studies ORIGINAL ARTICLE Received 08 Dec Accepted 12 Jan Study of Relationship between Organizational Learning and Strategic Flexibility in Directorate of Sports and Youth Amin Amani 1 *, Malihe Akbari 2, Zahra Shakarami 3, Hadi Jahani 4 1. PhD student Of Sport Management, Shomal University & Teacher of Farhangian University, Iran 2. PhD student Of Sport Management, Science and Research University, Alborz, Iran 3. PhD student Of Sport Management, Tehran University, Tehran, Iran 4. Master of Public Administration, Payam noor University, Tehran, Iran *Corresponding Author: Amin Amani ABSTRACT: In today's world, change is rapid and a successful adaptation is an important part of the success in the Common Era. the purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between organizational learning and Strategic flexibility in general Directorate of Youth and Sport of Lorestan province. From the purpose point of view this study is practical, the method of data collection and type of relation it is correlationand type of implementation is a survey research. Questionnaires were distributed among a sample of 192 members of staffs, experts and deputy of General Directorate of Youth and Sport of Lorestan. To analyze the data obtained, according to data normality, Pearson and Friedman test was used. Results: The results showed a significant relationship between organizational learning and strategic flexibility. The results indicate that there is a positive and significant relationship between organizational learning and strategic flexibility in Lorestan Physical Education Offices. Note that this relationship is positive, increase in each of these two factors led to the rise of another and decrease in each one of them will lead to a decrease in the other variable. Monitoring the work place and study of the events using official and unofficial systems will lead to increase in organizational flexibility. Keywords: Organizational Learning, Strategy, Strategic flexibility INTRODUCTION In today's world, change is rapid and a successful adaptation is an important part of the success in the Common Era. 1 The importance of continuous and strong learning in organizations never has been so vital.due to forces such as globalization and technology,the speed and complexity of changes has increased so that organizations are forced to learn more if they want to live more. 2 Goumzhu et al (2005) argue that four conditions are necessary for organizational learning : First, management must provide a solid grounding for organizational learning. Second, there should be a collective intelligence.third, organizations need organizational knowledge development based on transfer and integration of knowledge.and Fourth,simple adaptation to changes provided in the environment is not enough; but it should lead to creative learning. 3 In Organization and Management learning is discussed at different levels: individual, group,

2 Amani et al., 2015 organization. 4 Flexible organization shave been designed to understand and predict changes in the business environment and in this respect, they re-structure themselves. Three underlying factors cause an organization's survival and improve organization's learning which include: awareness, flexibility and productivity. The results of MISHRA AND BHASKAR study in 2010 entitled "Empowerment: One of the essential characteristics of a learner organization, indicated that the only aspect of decision-making is empowerment has emerged as one of the most important determinants of Organizational Learning, not other aspects like power exchange and evaluation of those individuals. Flexible production is capable of rapid change in production line. Fast changes are the movement capability from assembling a product to a similar product with the least tools and software programs replacement. The purpose of flexible production is to achieve high flexibility and productivity simultaneously. 5 Flexibility has been stressed increasingly, as an organizational capability that enables companies to gain competitive advantages and keep it and may improve performance in today's dynamic and competitive business environment. Consequently, marketing and strategy literature is increasingly knows the strategic flexibility as a critical organizational skill and maintainer of competitive advantage and superior performance. 6 Hitt, Keats, and Demarie (1998) define the strategic flexibility as "the ability of a company for quick reaction or respond in advance to a changing competitive environment ". In summary, Flexible organizations have the ability to identify market major changes and allocation of resources to new strategic actions and reactions and can response fast when they need to stop assigning or return allocated resources to previous strategies. 7 Characteristics of organizational learning processes are: Changes in organizational knowledge, increasing the range of possible changes in the mentality of people. 8 Given the significant role of the Youth and Sports Offices in promotionof sport and sustainable development in sport and recreation and pride of Country, like other organizations in order to achieve its goals, requires continuous learning at all work levels of the organization. If employees do not increase their knowledge along with environmental changes and do not have necessary agility and flexibility, they will not be able to respond to the turbulent environment of internal and external competitors who are rapidly moving towards learning and learning organizations. Safari et al., (2010) believe that Todays Sports organizations are subject to discontinuous changes. Communication and interaction of this organization with various factors such as Government, private sector, donors and other sports organizations, national and international and more importantly, social and economic, political and cultural factors, all together have gathered to create a perturbation environment for the agency. 9 Due to the impact and role of organizational learning on different organizational component, in this study, we April,

3 Study of Relationship between Organizational Learning and sought to answer this question that "What is the impact of organizational learning on strategy flexibility of Lorestan General Administration of Sports and Youth?" Material and Methods This study according to objectives is practical and based on method of data collection it is descriptive and based on implementation method it is a survey research. For Data collection Library research methods and field study Santos et al Questionnaire (2012) was used. The validity of questionnaire by the Cronbach's alpha was The first part of the questionnaire included personal information that had questions on demographics characteristics such as age, education, gender and marital status of respondents. The second part consisted of questions related to the relationship between organizational learning and flexibility, competitive strategies and organizational performance of the General Directorate of Youth and Sport in Lorestan. Since the research population includes all staff, technicians and assistants of Lorestan Directorate of Sports and Youth (384 person) and their number is limited, 192 subjects was selected as research population according to Cochrane formula. To describe data, Frequency graphs and tables were used. Besides, in order to describe data better, central indices and dispersion indices were used and according to normality of the data, Friedman test and Pearson's correlation coefficient test was used. Results Table 1. Descriptive characteristics of study component component average mean Standard deviation Organizational Learning Strategic flexibility Results Table 1 shows that average of organizational learning component is and standard deviation is According to mean, half of the data points is smaller than 3.50 and half of them was larger. This indicesfor strategic flexibility component is 3.17, and respectively. Table 2. Results of Pearson correlation test for examining the relationship between organizational learning and strategic flexibility Business performance customer performance Organizational Learning Pearson correlation Significance level > Strategic flexibility Pearson correlation Significance level > Due to the significance level of less than 0.001, organizational learning has a significant relationship with strategic flexibility. Looking at the estimated correlation coefficient (0.886), we find that this relationship is positive, this means that increasing in each one, will lead to increase in another one and decrease in each one will lead to a decrease in the other variable. As a result, the research

4 Amani et al., 2015 hypothesis of this question is accepted and it can be said that there is a positive and significant relationship with Strategic flexibility. Table 3.Results of Freedman ranking test for learning, flexibility and competitive strategy component rank Ranking average Organizational learning Strategic Flexibility Competitive Strategy Chi square test : Significance level: > Table 3 shows that organizational learning has the strongest correlation with organizational performance. Then, competitive strategy and strategic flexibility have the next priority. Discussion Demographic data gathered from descriptive study showed that 42 percent of respondents were female and 58% male. 28% of participants had associate degree and 60% BA and 10% MA and 2% PhD. 51% of participants were hired officially, 49% Contractual. 5% of participants had 1-5 year work experience, 17% had 5-10 year work experience and 41% had year work experience and 25% had year work experience and 12% had more than 20 year work experience.the results of KS test (which is the default Pearson correlation test) showed that organizational learning and strategic flexibility in the at error level type I of 0.05, are normally distributed. Other findings of the study from non-parametric Friedman test results showed that from three components of organizational learning, strategic flexibility and competitive strategy, organizational learning has the strongest relationship with organizational performance. Then competitive strategy and strategic flexibility have the next priorities. Findings showed that there is a positive and significant relationship between organizational learning and strategic flexibility in Lorestan Directorate of Sports and Youth. Test significance level of this study was less than and correlation coefficient is equal to Therefore, the research hypothesis is accepted at error level Type I (0.05). As this relationship is positive, increasing in each one, will lead to increase in another one and decrease in each one will lead to a decrease in the other variable. It is consistence with Kalani et al (2012) study entitled "the relationship between organizational learning and organizational agility in Iran sport & youth ministry" in which he showed that systematic view subscale for organizational learning and total quality management for agility has the most average in comparison to other components and organizational learning has a significant relationship with agility 10. This study is also consistence with Paknezhad et al (2011) study entitled "relationship between learner organization and preparation for changes in physical education organization in which they concluded that organizational understanding by staff as a learner organization and preparation for changes is at middle level and there is a April,

5 Study of Relationship between Organizational Learning and significant relationship between learner organization aspect and preparation for changes in physical education organization. 11 These results are consistent with findings by Safari (2010), Kalani (2012), Elahi (2008) and Paknezhad (2011) in the area of organizational learning in Iran Sports organizations. Thus, in line with our results, it is recommended to the sports agencies and similar organizations to vary the methods of offering services tailored to advance in technology and allocate more capacity for offering more and better services which will lead to improvement in organizational flexibility. Monitoring the work place and study of the events using official and unofficial systems will lead to increase in organizational flexibility. REFERENCES 1. Englehardt CS, Simmons PR. Organizational Flexibility for a changing world. Leadership & Organization Developing Journal. 2002; ¾(23): Markoad M. Foundations of learning organization. In: Iran-Nejad (Trans). 1 st edition, Modiran Publication.2010; Tehran. 3. Hertz HS. Education criteria for performance excellence. Balding national reality program.national Institute of Standards and Technology. Technology Administration, Department of Commerce Senge P. Creating a learning organization. In: Hedayat & Roshan (Trans). Industrial Management Publication Aminian A. The flexibility of knowledge-based organizations. Paper presented at the First National Conference on Knowledge Management Tehran. 6. Breu H, Zhang Z, Ravichandran T. A methodology for achieving agility in manufacturing organizations: An introduction. International Journal of Production Economics.2001; 62(1-2): Shimizu K, Hit MA. Strategic flexibility: Organizational preparedness to reverse ineffective strategic decisions. Academy of management Executive.2004; 18(4): Asadi H, Ghanbarpor A, Ghorbani M, Dosti M. The Relationship between Organizational Learning and Organizational Performance in Physical Education Physical experts of Physical Education Organization of Islamic Republic of Iran. Harkat Journal.2010; Safari M, Hamidi M, Jalali FM. Comparison of learning organization aspects in Physical Education Organization, the National Olympic Committee and Physical Education of Teaching System. Research in sport science.2010; 22: Kalani A, Poekhami E, Mohamadi SA, Taebi S. The relationship between organizational learning capability and agility in Youth and Sports Ministry. Journal of Human Resource Management in Sport.2012; 1(1): PaknezhadA, Kargar gh, Honari H. Relationship between learning organization aspects and readiness for change in Iran Physical Education Organizations. Journal of Sport Management.2011; 12:

INVESTIGATING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING AND FLEXIBILITY OF EMPLOYEES IN EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF SARPOOL-E-ZAHAB CITY

INVESTIGATING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING AND FLEXIBILITY OF EMPLOYEES IN EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF SARPOOL-E-ZAHAB CITY Iran Ghanbari Department of Management, Sanandaj Branch, Islamic